Approximately 60 registrants were treated to this April tour of the Ringwood, Melbourne Food Innovation Centre, situated at the manufacturing site of Mondelez International (formerly Cadburys).
The tour consisted of three parts:
A visit to the design labs that featured: 3D and other advanced printers and design tools.
A presentation on "Asian Insights" from Lisa Flower, Capability Leader at Mondelez. This highlighted how different cultures reacted differently to various colours.
A visit to the Virtual Theatre that enables a virtual store to be changed and configured to provide the optimum location and colours for the merchandise.
The Centre is open to local businesses that can benefit from the expertise and facilities that are available. I summary, the tour was about collaboration, colour and how organisations can learn about the food innovation process. The Victorian State Government is to be thanked for providing some of the funding to build the Centre.
This was followed by a six speaker Seminar at the local Bowls Club attended by over 80 people. Speakers were from Qenos, Bega Cheese, the design houses CobaltNiche and Outerspace, and the Victorian government's Melbourne Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group.
This led us through the whole cycle of packaging development and use, and ended with a lively discussion on the recycling of flexible plastics, and the differences that exist between different regions in Melbourne: Food for thought indeed!
As always it was a team effort with Event Coordinator Lex Edmond being assisted by Han Michel of E-three & Associates, Hamed Ghajarnia of Mills Ormiston Rubber, Trevor Smith, Consultant, Roya Khalil from Bega Cheese, and SPE: A-NZ President Craig Benson from Sun Ace Australia.
First Photo: Speaker Steve Mirams from Qenos receiving his Certificate of Appreciation from SPE: A-NZ President Craig Benson.
Second Photo: Speaker Dion Grobbelaar from Bega Cheese with SPE: A-NZ President Craig Benson.